Michael Benjamin Wright

Michael Benjamin Wright

Wright, Michael Benjamin Mike, age 55 of Eden Prairie, MN, passed away peacefully on August 11, surrounded by his loving family, after a courageous, hard fought fourteen year battle with kidney cancer. Mike was born in Minneapolis, MN on July 27, 1964 to Susan and Michael W. Wright. He graduated from St. Thomas Academy in 1982 and Creighton University in 1986. Mike loved living life to the fullest. He was known for his quick and quiet wit, his deep love of family and friends, his passion for business, and his loyalty to his colleagues. He traveled the world, including working in Singapore and Australia, loved seeing live music, and was a natural at waterskiing and basketball. Mike excelled at numbers and probabilities, and loved games of strategy. He enjoyed travelling to Las Vegas with friends to wager on sports and horses. He was so successful that he was often invited as a guest expert by Las Vegas radio shows to discuss college football odds and finished second out of thousands of entries in the season long 2016 Golden Nugget Ultimate Football Challenge. Mike was a driven, successful entrepreneur, and he cared deeply for the people who worked with him. In 2000 he purchased the licensing rights to Famous Dave's retail products and successfully built the business from scratch into a national distributor of the company's bbq sauce, pickles, cornbread muffin mix, and seasonings. Mike also owned many successful restaurants, and was as passionate for the businesses as his people, to whom he was deeply loyal and grateful. Mike's greatest win was to apply his passion for life to defy the odds again and again, fighting kidney cancer for fourteen years, driven by his desire to spend as much time living his life to the fullest with his children Samantha (27), Michael S. (17), and Camden (15). He cherished the time with his kids playing sports and games, teaching them to waterski, cheering them on, watching them mature and play with their cousins at Wildwood. In addition to his parents and children, Mike is survived by his step- mother Judy; his siblings Jennifer (Charlie Krupanszky) Wright, Molly (Paul) Reppenhagen, Julie (Scott) Card, and Adam (Hunter) Wright; step-siblings, Kevin O'Shea & Kelly (John) Harrington; aunt, Nancy Wright; nieces and nephews Sophie and John Krupanszky, Ben, Lauren, and Chloe Reppenhagen, Caroline, A.J., and Matthew Card, Morrison, Winnie, and Palmer Wright; cousins; and many close, long-time friends including his best friend John Glockner. A special thank you to Dr. Arkadiusz Z. Dudek and the wonderful care team at Regions Hospital. Mike co-founded Team8, Inc. a 501-c non-profit dedicated to promoting wellness and its connection to cancer prevention and improved cancer survival, while raising funds for kidney cancer research and patient advocacy. Team8 annually hosts Break-The-Bank at TCF Stadium, a Climb 4 Kidney Cancer, to raise funds for kidney cancer research at the University of Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to Team8, Inc. (climb4kc.org/…) and all are encouraged to participate in the Break- The-Bank-2019 climb on September 7, 2019. To learn more, please visit: climb4kc.org/break-the-bank-2019/ A celebration of life and reception will be held at 11:00am Saturday, August 17th at the Woodhill Country Club Barn, 200 Woodhill Road, Wayzata, MN 55391. Washburn-Mcreavy.com Edina Chapel 952-920-3996